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The New European Parliament must ban the force feeding of ducks and geese

Posted on 16/07/2014

Eurogroup for animals is shocked that every Member of the European Parliament received last week a gift from several organisations including “Strasbourg pour l’Europe” which included a terrine of Foie Gras in an attempt to convince them of the necessity of maintaining parliamentary sessions in Strasbourg.
Foie gras is the object of much controversy and its production is currently banned in the majority of EU Member States. Indeed only last week India decided to ban the import of foie gras because of animal welfare concerns. We believe that this cruelly produced delicacy is a scandalous gift and should not be accepted by Members of the European Parliament as it perpetuates an industry that is inherently cruel to animals.

To date only 14 MEPs have rejected the gift, which means that most of the Parliament have accepted it, showing their acceptance of foie gras and allowing producers to carry on their force feeding practices which are a major source of bad welfare for the animals.

Eurogroup calls on the Members of Parliament to urge the EU to adopt a legislative ban on the force-feeding of ducks and geese for the production of foie gras as quickly as possible.

“We would also like to welcome the new members of the European Parliament to Strasbourg but believe that the gift they have received is ethically unacceptable. We are sure that they will understand the extreme suffering experienced by force fed geese and ducks in the production of foie gras and we urge them to return their gift and to put pressure on the European Commission to ban the production of foie gras in Europe,” said Reineke Hameleers, Director at Eurogroup for Animals.

“Fois gras production is a cruel and avoidable practice, especially when substitutes already exist, such as Faux Gras de GAIA® commercialized by our Belgian member, GAIA. During the Plenary session in Strasbourg we will distribute this perfect alternative to all MEPs and explain why this addresses such a major animal welfare concern,” concluded Ms Hameleers.